Island of Doom
by The Familiar
Summary: Another human finds out about Zims existance. Will anybody survive this? Rating raised for slight gore.
1. Chapter 1

FAN fiction.

I have Word working, and therefore, Speelcheck!!!!

This is a vague sequel to my story untitled Multi-chapter. Reading it isn't necessary, as bemused ignorance is just a much more fun way of getting through life. Just ask Arthur Dent.

It will be updated every week or so.

-- - --- - -- -

He was the greatest hunter of all time. Big game mostly, but also medium game. He had a room full of taxidermied animals that he had killed himself. Nobody but his closest friends was allowed into that room. There were far too many endangered species there for him to get off charges, no matter how much he paid the police.

He had even killed humans. It was an internet site for the rich, advertising a chance to kill humans in Slovakia. He had gone there and had hunted the most dangerous animal of all. It wasn't enough for him, though. He wanted to hunt something far more dangerous than helpless tourists. He wanted to hunt something exotic, unusual and more importantly, something that could fight back, that could use strategy, and that could plan.

'Butler!!!' he called.

'Yes, sir?' answered the butler, sliding into the room after a two second wait, as if he had been standing outside the door waiting to be called.

'I need something interesting. Could you help me find something interesting?'

The Butler knew exactly what he meant by interesting. 'Have you tried to hunt the Sasquatch yet, sir?'

'I already have hunted it, remember? It turned into a pile of snow when it died. I'm not going to waste time hunting any more of your ridiculous paranormal creatures.'

'I don't believe there are many animals left in the world for you to hunt. You have travelled all the continents hunting, and so I don't believe there's anything left that's worthy of your amazing hunting talents for you to go after'

The man thought for a bit. 'You're right, of course. There's nothing left for me to do but focus on my business, and make the scientists work harder in developing weapons for me to sell.'

The butler thought hard about that. He didn't want his boss to stay home for any longer than he had to. Nobody realised that it was him who ran the business. If the boss stayed home, he would want to interfere, and ruin all of the butlers▓ hard work. 'Well, sir, I have heard of an alien on this planet. It's apparently smart. And a trained soldier.'

The hunter leaned forward. 'More of your paranormal junk from the internet?'

'No, sir. we heard about this through hacking into Professor Membranes most secret, personal files, that he keeps only on one computer, and our best hacker can barely get through all the firewalls and encryptions on that computer, sir.'

The Hunter leaned forward, 'I'm listening.' 


	2. Chapter 2

Zim was on a beach. He didn't know why he was on the beach, or how he had got there. He didn't know where the beach was, but he had been walking along it for a while.

He could see another pair of footprints starting in the distance, so there must be someone else on the beach. He ran so he could catch up with them.

-----

Whoever he was following just seemed to gather more people. Every 5.8 miles another pair of footsteps started. He was following at least 5 people now.

The plantlife annoyed him as well. every 5.8 miles he passed the same repeating sequence of plants. He even passed a burnt tree, much like one he had shot at the last time he passed a new set of footprints. he wrote his name in the sand then started following the footprints again.

-----

He was sitting in the sand, with a burnt tree behind him and his name written down next to him. he had figured it out. He wasn't following anyone. It was just a very small land mass. He had walked around it seven times.

It was starting to get dark, and though he wasn't scared of the dark, and could see through it perfectly easily, he would like to find some shelter. He could search for a way off the landmass tomorrow.

He looked towards the inner part of the small landmass. There would have to be shelter in there. By his AMAZING calculations there would have to be at least 4 squared human miles in the inner part of the land mass, probably more if he counted the raised part of the island. He had learnt that word in his human geography class.

He headed towards the forested part of the island. This was a strange place, and anything could roam it during the night. Nothing too big, because it was a small island, but Zim wasn't too big either, so whatever lived there might be able to cause him damage. He didn't doubt that something lived there. There seemed to be things everywhere on this planet.

After five minutes of stumbling through the dark and tripping over exposed roots and large fallen branches he found a large tree. It had branches that were close together, and if he jumped he could reach the bottom branch. He wanted to get off the ground for the night, because most earthen animls lived on the ground. Snakes, spiders, beetles, birds, bats they all lived on the ground. He would be safe in the tree, where he could assess the situation, make a list of things that would work against him, and things that would work for him, and think a way off the island with his incredible mind powers.

-----

His list of things working for him was completed. Number one was that he was Zim, and so would get a way off he island. Zim was too great to perish on some forsaken rock, on another forsaken rock, so he would get off the island.

Number two was that the humans would notice he was missing, and would search for him. Though it would be degrading to be rescued by a human, dying on the island would be worse. Though the alternative was living as a subject in the humans' scientific collection. Anyway, how would the human find him. He crossed number two off his list.

He didn't need to eat. His PAK provided all his nutrients, so he wouldn't starve on the island.

The list of things against him was much longer. Number one was he was on an island, surrounded by water. The water would burn if he went in it, so he couldn't escape that way.

Number two was he didn't know where he was, so when he escaped, he wouldn't know what direction to travel in to get back home.

Number three was his inability to cross the water. he knew humans had boats, but he didn't know how to make one, so it would probably sink. He also didn't want to get too close to the water, so travelling n it was out of the question.

Number four was the destruction of his PAK. It didn't have any defensive capabilities, or aanything he could use to help him get off the island.

He sat in his tree, and decided to search the island tomorrow to find a way off it. A find a way he would, because he was Zim, and was superior.

-----x

Zim was not asleep. Irkens do not sleep. No Irken has slept for thousands of years. Brief periods of unconsciousness, yes, but not sleep. He was just relaxing, which Irkens can do in times of extreme stress or boredom. He hadn't expected there to be anyone on the island, so was quite surprised when his rest was disturbed by three men walking through the forest.

All of them were carrying guns and wearing jungle camoflage suits. They were looking about themselves as if they had lost something, or were searching for something. The one to the left looked up and saw something that he thought of as supicious. It was Zims' head leaning over the side of the thick branch that he had lived on for the night.

The man stared at Zim for a long time before shaking himself and going back to the other two, who had stopped and were looking at what he was staring at. 'Did you see something, Scorby?' The man who had been in the middle of them asked in a loud whisper.

'No, Mister Chase, sir. I thought I did, but it was just leaves.' He replied, looking once more at the suspicious "leaves", before rejoining the other two.

'Don't start going mad on me know, Scorby. You're one of the best to bring on a hunt with me,' Chase said when he was within low whispering distance from them.

he nodded and they continued.

Zim was confused. What did he mean by "hunt", and why didn't they see him? He then looked closer at the tree he was sitting on. The leaves were almost the exact same shade as his skin, and he had been squinting, so they hadn't seen his eyes fully. He laughed and wrote this on his "things going for me" list.

Number three: My amazing Irken skin fools these humans.

To find out the answer to the other question he would have to follow the humans and listen in on their conversation. He jumped out of hie tree and went in the drection they had taken. Five minutes later he had passed the same tree six times, and didn't know where that tree was in relation to the other trees on the island. In other words; he had been walking in circles and was hopelessly lost.

-----

There was a large boat anchored two nautical miles from the beach. It was in sight of the camp that had been set up. The man at the helm of the ship looked through his binoculars at the camp again, and settled down with his beer and magazine. He was halfway though an article about the late, great Hugh Heffners' life, but kept on getting distracted by the pictures.

He didn't need to worry about being drunk driving the boat. Mister Chase would signal with a flare when he had caught the creature, and he usually liked to skin whatever he caught on the boat. There would be plenty of time to sober up later.

-----

Zim had managed to unlose himself, ending up on the beach. There were more footprints on the ground here, and they weren't his footprints. They were around a tent, which Zim decided must be the base camp of the humans. Near the base camp was a deflated inflatable dinghy. The noise that the water from the sea made unsettled him somewhat, so did the bases proximity to the water. Plus what kind of fool would leave his base unprotected from intruders.

Curiosity was greater than his uneasiness though. If he went into the enemies (of corse they were his enemy. What else would hey be?) base, he might find a way off the island, or at least a weapon to use against them.

He walked over to the tent and looked inside. It was a very large tent, and contained not only sleeping bags, but also guns, a large box with a red cross on it, and several cold boxes. He was going to go further into the tent, but stopped when he heard a sharp click behind him. He turned around and saw one of the humans behind him. It was the one that the others had referred to as Scorby. He was holding a large gun and its' end was pointed towards Zim.

Scorby grinned and said, 'I knew you'd come here. You're smarter than Mr. Chase thinks. If I bring you to him alive, he'll reward me handsomely. But if I kill you myself, I might be allowed to keep a souvenir.' He pulled the trigger.

--- -- -- - -

Dimensions of the island:

Circumference: 9.4 kilometres or 5.828 miles

Radius: 1.496 kilometres or .9276 miles

Area: 7.031 kilometres(squared) or 4.3592 miles(squared) 


	3. Chapter 3

Rating changed for (at the moment) minimal violence and gore. Enjoy!

--- - - --- -

The gun shot went off.

Zim jumped through the gap between the base of the tent and the wall of the tent in the time between the human squeezing the trigger and the bullet hitting where he had been. He may not have been the greatest soldier (not that he'd admit to it), but he still had all the reflexes from training and escaping from taller Irkens that wanted to beat him up.

As he ran towards the forest edge, he heard the human swearing behind him. He turned around to see what was happening and saw the human holding a gun aimed towards him. He jumped into the forest just as the gun was fired, but didn't quite escape the bullet. He felt it ripping into his side just below his ribcage and saw it come out the other side of his body.

He gasped and fell to his knees, but got up again and headed deeper into the jungle, at a much reduced pace. He was trying to find his tree again, or anything he could hide in until he fixed his side. He soon came upon a tree quite like his old one, but with a knotty trunk that he could easily climb up. He held his side as he climbed up the tree to a branch near the top, so that he didn't leave a bloody stain where he had brushed against the trunk.

He made it to a branch about ten feet off the ground that was wide enough for him to sit on, and also had enough leaf cover below it so he wouldn't be seen from the ground. He sat on the branch and lifted the bottom of his shirt up to study the wound. Then he made a face and looked away from it. It wasn't the kind of nice, clean wound you got from lasers. It was a great tear in his side that, though it would heal in a couple of hours, would still bleed a lot and cause him considerable pain when he moved. He tore a few inches from the bottom of his shirt and made pads to cover both sides of the hole, plus a bandage to keep them in place. He could have done a better job if he had his medical supplies from inside his PAK, but this would be good enough for now. He leaned against the trunk of the tree to wait out the next few hours.

-----

Mr. Chase and Keeler were at the camp with Scorby. He was telling them what happened. '...And then it ran off into trees, but I think I winged it.'

'So it's injured and knows what we're doing?' Keeler asked, slightly scared. He knew what injured animals were capable of, and who knew what the creature might try if it thought it had no hope of survival.

'It'll be scared and less able to protect itself. This'll be the perfect opportunity to catch it.' Mr. Chase was more positive in his outlook than Keeler. 'We'll split up. If one of us finds it, we'll radio the others. If you must shoot it, try not to damage the hide too much, or shoot it in a less conspicuous place. This creature will be my last great prize.' He had dreamy look in his eyes.

-----

A few hours later

-----

Zim looked at his wound. It wasn't completely healed, but it was good enough to not give out if he did strenuous physical activity, and that was good enough.

He listened to make sure there was nothing large and noisy around, and also looked to check the coast was clear before he jumped out of the tree, wincing as his side was jarred by the impact.

He stood next to the tree and tried to remember what he had been taught in Invader Survival Classes under the section of "If You Are Lost In Unfamiliar Territory And Have No Contact With Your Base And Can't Use Your PAK." The first thing they had been taught was "Don't let this happen to you." Zim could remember that easily, but the rest was a bit of a blur. He had never thought he would ever get lost and so had ignored the rest of the lesson. He wasn't lost still, but he wished he had paid more attention.

He thought hard and remembered. He still had the memory disk in his PAK! If he just accessed that it would re-teach him the lesson.

He sat on the ground and remembered.

-----

FILES ACCESSED: DEVASTIS MILITARY TRAINING

ACCESS APPROVED

FILES ACCESSED: INVADER SURVIVAL CLASS

ACCESS APPROVED

FILES ACCESSED: DAY 76: IF YOU ARE LOST IN UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY...

ACCESS APPROVED

FILES OPENED

-----

Zim was sitting in a room with about 100 Invaders in training. A taller was standing in front of the class lecturing them about something, but he was Zim. He didn't need to know about other people getting lost.

Zim sat watching what Zim was watching, and paying attention to the lecturer. Well, trying to pay attention to the lecturer. He had forgotten how boring they were, and he was just droning on and on about some pre-lecture rubbish, what they had been taught earlier. He tuned into what was going on around him.

There were Red and Purple! Before they were tallest, they were sitting in the row in front of him. 'Hey Red! Purple! It's me! Zim!'

'Shut up, Zim. We're trying to concentrate on the lecture.'

'Don't worry, Red. It'll be at least half an hour before he starts talking about now. At least Zim will give us a few laughs' Purple was always nicer than Red was.

Zim sighed. He didn't have time for this, no matter how amazing himself in he past was.

-----

FILES ACCESSED: 30 MINUTES LATER

ACCESS APPROVED

-----

'...you.' The lecture had already started, but he hadn't missed more than the first dot point. 'But since I'm sure this will happen to at least one of you,' Zim was sure all eyes were on him at that statement, 'I'll tell you the rest of the points.'

Zims attention was grabbed, while the other Zim started fidgeting in his seat.

'The second thing to remember is find a position of safety and stay there. Make sure it is easily defendable. If you are unable to defend yourself...'

Zim realised he should've stayed in the tree. Plus this would take too long. Lecturers always made an epic tale of a five second statement.

-----

FILES ACCESSED: DAY 76 LECTURE: EDITED HIGHLIGHTS

-----

A number 1 flashed up in his vision.

'Don't let this happen to you.'

A number 2 appeared.

'Find a position of safety and stay there. Make sure it is easily defendable'

A number 3 and the lecturer was in a different place.

'Never stay out in the open for too long.'

Number 4.

'Never stay in the same place for too long.'

Number 5.

'Trap the area, and remember where the traps are set.'

Number 6.

'Keep out of sight of the natives.'

Number 7.

'If you have no weapons, get some'

Number 8.

'Contact the fleet as soon as possible.'

Number 9.

'Don't let this happen to you.'

'Hey, you repeated that!' Zim had yelled out.

'Just so it gets drilled into your heads.' Whispering he added on 'They plan on allowing that to become an invader?'

-----

RECAP ENDED

-----

Zim moaned and opened his eyes. He always hated using the Memory Disk. It gave him such a headache. He then sat up quickly and climbed back up into the tree. Now he was in a place of safety. It was easily defendable, and it camouflaged him. That wasn't something the lecturer had said, so he must be better than the lecturer to know this.

Now all he had to do was set traps, get weapons, and contact the fleet somehow. They would be so excited if he contacted them, knowing that he wasn't dead. They would finally come and destroy this planet, they might even make it a public Zim Day, where everyone had to worship him, and then they would give him a better planet to conquer.

He laughed at the thought of the humans dying and the other Irkens worshipping him for his amazingness, when he heard the click of a humans' gun. He glanced over the side of the tree and saw a human staring straight back at him. He withdrew his head from sight and hoped the human hadn't seen him, cursing himself for his stupidity and giving his position away.

His hope was short-lived as he heard a crackle of static and the human say, 'this is Keeler. I've found the alien, it's in a tree. My position is 56az, 95gh.' The radio was turned off, and he pointed his gun at the tree.

Zim was frantic by now. ALL the humans knew where he was, and he knew they wouldn't let him get out of it alive. 'I feel like I▓ve jumped straight into the mouth of a slavering xx&hu8g!! beast.' he muttered to himself. Then he had an idea.

Scorby was starting to feel a bit worried. Maybe he hadn't seen anything. There had been no movement since he saw, or thought he saw, it looking over the side of the tree. He saw something fall out of the tree, and smash him right in the face, before he could even fire a shot.

Zim grinned. He knew these pathetic worm creatures▓ heads were easily broken, but he hadn't thought that him jumping onto its face, boot first, would cause it to split open completely. He took his foot out of the red gunk that humans bled, and the grey stuff that they thought with, and shook his boot off.

He grabbed the gun. Now he had a weapon, even though it was bigger than he was, almost, and their camp was deserted. Now was the time to sabotage their base, contact help using their radio, and get more weapons. He ran off through the forest.

-----

Five minutes later Scorby and Mister Chase reached the location given to them by Keeler. They reached their, and didn't see him until they went around the other side of the tree. Even though Mister Chase had hunted a lot of animals, he had to stop himself from being sick. Keeler had insects crawling on him already.

-- - - - --

Told you it was minimal.

Zim has very solid boots. VERY solid heavy boots. Do not question me; you can kill someone by punching their nose right.

It took me too long to write this chapter.

This is the longest chapter I've ever written. 


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry this took so long. I was distracted. Writers' block, applying to Uni, Playing Harry Potter computer game...

More "gore". Only bad if you picture things while you read them.

--- - - - - -

Scorby and Chase went back to their base, sobered by the previous experience. It's not that nobody ever died on the expeditions, it's just that they assumed, through having read the notes on Professor Membrane's computer that the alien was stupid and it would be unable to kill one of them. The contradicting of this hypothesis made them rethink the danger level that they had put on the creature. What they saw next made them rethink it even more.

The whole camp had been torn apart. Everything in the camp seemed to be broken or missing. A little fire had been started on the beach, and in it was the remains of their food, their tent, their inflatable dinghy, and anything else that might've burnt. Their radio was in pieces, with wires hanging out the back of it. Their spare guns had been spiked, and all the ammo was missing. The tracks all around the camp were of small boots, obviously carrying something heavier than they were. The spare flare guns were on the beach in an open box. Scorby went over to the box and picked one up, aiming it at the sky.

'Put that down, Scorby.'

'Mister Chase, don't you think we should call the boat in, and get more supplies, before we hunt the alien again?'

'No.' Chase said. 'I want to catch that creature today, I want it to be alive, and then I'm going to torture it. I'm going to skin it alive, and listen to it scream.' He had an evil gleam in his eyes. 'We are going to split up. If you find it, don't kill it. You can shoot it so long as you don't kill it. Radio me if you find it, but don't get too close to it. Whatever you do, be careful. It has Keelers' gun.'

'That sounds like a perfect idea, Mister Chase.' Scorby agreed, and put the flare gun down his pants.

-----

Zim was setting the final details on the trap he was setting. It was one of his favourite ones from training, and he hadn't set one for years. IF he set it right, it would break every bone in the victims' body. If he didn't set it right, it would cause a slow, agonising death. If he really didn't set it right, it would just collapse. There was a small margin of error between the last two, and he always tried to set it right, though setting it wrong/right had been his specialty.

He placed the last piece in the trap, and stepped back to admire it. He frowned. He seemed to have camouflaged it too well. He couldn't see it anywhere. He took some tentative steps around where he was sure the trap was to the other side, he then grabbed up all the stuff he had taken from the humans' base while he had been ransacking it.

He had had more time than he had expected, and so had made sure they would have nothing left to use to catch him. He had even left them their escape flares so they could leave the island. He had seen the boat off the island, and knew they would have another small boat on that. They should be grateful he had been so merciful.

He had tried to contact the armada, but their "radio" wasn't powerful enough, and he didn't have the time or materials to strengthen the signal. He walked on to his next site, and passed the place where he had killed the human. Its body was gone, but there was a mound of earth where there hadn't been one before. He kicked a bit of the earth off the pile and sneered. That was why they had taken so much time. They had been burying the body, or at least piling dirt and leaves on top of it.

If they didn't take the hint and fire the flares, he would at least be able to protect himself from them. Though the humans were bad at everything else, they were good at making weapons. When they were conquered they might build weapons for the Armada.

He set his final trap and sighed. Now he had done everything he had been taught to at the Academy, he just had to wait for the humans to die, and stay out of their way while they did so. That shouldn't be too hard. They weren't the most observant of creatures.

He looked up at the sky. It seemed to be getting dark. He thought humans didn't like to be out in the dark, but he wasn't too sure. Every time he had been out when it was dark there had always been humans around. Maybe a city was different to a jungle. Though there was less light in the jungle.

He decided to see if his hypothesis was correct by going to where he thought they would be; on the beach. Making his way through the jungle was easy, because his ocular enhancements meant he could see in the dark, but it was still slow going. He had to remember where his traps had been set and dodge them all.

He did make it to the beach, relatively unscathed. He saw that they were camped around the fire he had started, and chuckled to himself. They had to rely on him for warmth and safety at night. He found a suitable tree and sat in it for the night, watching the humans, so he was ready for them in the morning.

-----

When it started to get light the humans woke up. Zim watched them sit up and wake up. They would be getting hungry by now, because all their food had been burnt. He saw the underling human dig in the sand near where the camp had been set. He took out a box and opened the lid. There was food in the box.

Scorby was glad that they had buried the food box in the sand for these sorts of circumstances. There would be enough food for the two of them to last a couple of days, but not much longer. He hoped that they had killed the alien by then.

'Scorby', Chase said, 'you go that way.' He pointed in a direction through the forest, 'and I'll go this way. We'll meet up on the other side.'

'Aye, aye, Sir' Scorby responded. 'I'll bring the alien with me.'

'But make sure it's alive.'

-----

Zim was following the human called Scorby, hiding in the undergrowth so he wasn't seen. He was following this human because it was walking nearer the majority of his traps, and he wanted to make sure it stepped on one, even if it meant pushing the human into the trap himself.

Scorby, on his part, was doing a good job of watching Zim, without Zim knowing he was being watched. The alien wasn't too good at being quiet, and a pink shirt isn't very good camouflage. He grinned to himself, and took a sharp left, leading the alien into a more open part of the island. He knew it was fast, and if he tried to shoot at it in the confines of a jungle, it would probably have hidden itself behind a tree. Its short height meant it would be better suited to going fast through an enclosed space.

He soon made it too the open part of the island, and walked far into it, making sure to keep an eye on the alien. To its' credit, it wasn't leaving the cover of the forest, and was even going further into the trees.

To try and tempt the alien out of the cover of the jungle, he sat down; making sure his back was to it. He knew this was an ill-advised move, but he felt if the alien _was _intelligent, it would have a natural sense of curiosity, and would wonder as to _why_ he was sitting down.

Zim had no such troubles with curiosity, and when his prey provided him with such an obvious target, he pulled his gun off his back, held it as steadily as he could, given its' size compared to his, and pulled the trigger.

Unfortunately, he wasn't prepared for the recoil, because lasers didn't have any projectiles to force a backwards movement. So, the bullet went about two feet too high and to the left, and he was pushed onto his back because of the force of the blast. When he regained his breath he saw the human standing over him, and felt a blow to the side of his head, turning everything black.

Scorby grinned and picked up the alien. His plan had failed, but it had still succeeded. He was alive, he had the alien, and soon he would have a pay rise as well.

He tuned his radio into Chase's frequency. 'Mr. Chase, I have the alien here.'

Crackle, crackle. 'You do?'

'Yes, sir. I'm holding it in right now.' He said, picking Zim up by his uniform collar.

'Meet me at the camp. We'll signal the boat and then we'll have fun.'

'Yes sir!' Scorby said, with a very pleased sound in his voice.

He placed Zim over his shoulder and went off through the jungle.

-----

It took Scorby an hour to get to the camp site. The alien may not have been big or heavy, but it was still a dead weight that needed to be carried.

He made it to the beach and dumped Zim on the sand by Scorby's feet. 'There you go Mr. Chase. The alien.'

Chase knelt down by Zim to inspect his condition. 'Very good Scorby. You'll get a pay rise for this.'

'Thankyou Mr. Chase.'

'And do you want to fire the flare gun?'

Scorby grinned and took two steps back, took the gun out of his pants, held the gun above his head and fired it.

Then he fell to the ground screaming, rolling in the sand as fire burnt his clothes, hair, face and hands. He staggered upright, and turned towards Chase.

Chase recoiled in disgust. Scorbys' skin was burning and melting off his face. One of his hands was missing, and the other one was black, burnt skin. His clothes were melting to his skin, and the smell was awful. He smelt of burnt meat and burning hair. His eyes had burst and were just liquid running down his face. The worst thing though, was that Scorby wasn't covered in flames. His clothes were on fire, but the rest of him could be easily seen. He wasn't screaming, either. Scorby ran disorientedly to the sea, but fell before he got halfway, and collapsed in a pile of burnt limbs and clothes.

After Chase finished being sick in the bushes, he turned back to where he had left the alien. It was going to suffer for this. He turned and noticed the alien had vanished.

- -- -- - - -

Is that a flare gun in your pants, or are you just pleased to see me? Ah, Mae West.

I wanted to write "pointless filler" in where most of this story is. I'm so sorry about the dodgy quality.

If anyone thinks I need to bump the rating up, please let me know.


	5. Chapter 5

Warning: this gets very dark.

--- - - -- - - - -

Zim wasn't hiding in the tree. Invaders did not hide from anything. They subtly blended into the background and observed from their position. That was what he was doing; observing the human on the beach. The human was loading a gun and keeping watch. Zim saw that the human was keeping watch on anywhere but the corpse of his colleague. Zim laughed quietly, humans were so squeamish about their dead. Their own burnt, blackened, smelly dead. Zim also started observing the situation away from the body.

Chase stared at the forest. This was what it had come down to; a battle of man vs. alien. Human weapons and intelligence against alien intelligence. He gripped the gun tighter. The alien could be anywhere. It could be deep in the forest, setting up fiendish traps, it could be watching him, plotting his death. He could be looking right at it but not know it. He knew it was unarmed, but that didn't mean it couldn't kill him. It might spit poisonous venom, it might be able to hypnotise him into killing himself, it might be able to do anything. He scolded himself for his irrational thoughts. If it could do any of that, surely it would have done that already.

Zim considered his options. He could climb out of the tree and risk alerting the human to his presence, or he could stay in the tree and risk having the human spot him. This conundrum was solved when a spider landed on top of his head. He didn't know what it was to begin with, so he just flicked an antenna at it. It didn't move, so he swatted it with his hand. It transferred itself from his head to his hand, and he brought his hand down to look at it. Seeing what it was, and knowing all about spiders from "horror movies", he screamed and started flailing his hand, losing his balance in the process, and he fell off the branch, crushing the spider. He looked around himself suspiciously, then ran off into the forest, trying not to make too much noise.

Chase heard a crashing in the forest, and knew it had to be the alien. He didn't have any large animals on this island. He ran into the forest, in time to see the alien start running. The hunt was on.

-----

Zim could hear the human behind him. He seemed to be getting closer to Zim, and Zim just kept on wishing that he still had his spare legs with him. He would have easily escaped the human if he had them with him. Not only that, but he could've killed the human and escaped the island by now if he had. He ducked beneath a thick tangle of branches and leaves, then quietly crept off in a different direction.

Chase had followed the alien until he couldn't hear it crashing through the undergrowth anymore. He looked at the ground and searched for any tracks it had left. He saw some broken branches in a denser part of undergrowth, where it had obviously pushed through to get into forest Chase wouldn't easily be able to follow. This just made Chase grin and pull out his machete. Nothing would stop him from catching this animal.

-----

Zim panted as he slowed to a stop. He had been pushing through dense jungle for the last 15 minutes, and he just couldn't go any further. He heard a crashing in the jungle close behind him, and managed to push himself forward again.

Chase knew that it was slowing down. He could almost see it in the forest ahead of him. He could also picture it stuffed and mounted on a stand in his private study. It would fill the space between his polar bear and leopard nicely. He heard a shout ahead of him, and a lot of crashes, and knew that he had the alien.

Zim swore. He had run straight into his own trap. He was glad he hadn't been pulled apart, but he still couldn't believe that the amazing him had walked into his own trap. He was hanging upside down from a branch when he saw the human arrive. 'You seem to be in a bit of trouble' he said, laughing at Zims' predicament. Zim growled at the human, and he took a step forwards.

The next part seemed to happen in slow motion for Zim. The human took a step forwards and raised his machete, then a surprised look appeared on his face. A bundle of rope exploded out of nowhere, and curled around Chases limbs. A series of loud, sickening pops occurred, as all his limbs were dislocated. Then, to everybody's surprise, a large tree branch fell down and crushed his body underneath it. Zim was especially surprised, because in all his times of setting that trap, a tree branch had never crushed anybody before. Plus he never realised he had put two traps that close to each other.

Zim also then fell out of his boot, hitting his head and landing in a puddle of blood. He heard the human moan, and looked at him. Zim was surprised the human was still alive. 'Please, please kill me.' he heard it beg.

Zim shrugged. He would never get another chance to kill a human. So he picked up the gun and threw it away. It was nothing more than a mangled wreck. He then picked up the machete and stood by the humans head. He winced as it coughed up blood on his stockinged foot. It took him a few chops of the machete to completely decapitate the human, then kicked the head far away from the body, so it couldn't put it back on. He heard it make a wet squelching sound somewhere in the distance.

He looked up at his boot, high in the trees, and knew he would never get it back, so he took off his other boot so he wasn't walking at an angle, and set off for the beach.

-----

Zim was sitting on the beach, watching the sea. It was quite a warm day, and because nobody could see him, he had taken off his gloves and bloody stockings, and was squelching sand between his toes. He didn't know when, or even if, Professor Membrane would find him, but until then, he was going to relax.

- -- -- -- --

And lo, it is done.

Don't complain that Zim doesn't wear stockings. You don't know for sure, so you can't complain, for sure.

Sorry for the wait, but it's my Christmas, too. 


End file.
